The present invention relates to a method and system for applying a marking to a substrate. The invention is particularly useful for applying a border of opaque material adjacent to and around a windshield plate, and is therefore described below with respect to this application.
Up to recent years, the motor vehicle windshield was generally mounted to the motor vehicle body by the use of a grommet or sealing ring applied along the outer border of the windshield and received in the windshield opening of the vehicle body. The application of such a grommet to the windshield, done manually, was found difficult to automate. In recent years, this manually applied grommet has been replaced in many motor vehicles by a sealing strip covered by a painted border applied adjacent to and around the windshield. The conventional way of applying such a border of opaque material adjacent to and around the windshield is by painting through a silk-screen. Such a silk-screen process, however, is usually done manually; moreover, it requires a separate pattern or mask for each shape and size of windshield, and also requires a substantial period of time and/or a substantial quantity of material to apply the complete border.